The Dragon Within
by CodeLyoko
Summary: It was easy to hide within Ryoutarou, hidden from the other Imagin and even the boy himself. All he knew was he'd wake up when it was interesting so he could defeat the boy and then he could be the train conductor! But Ryuutaros never expected for the Imagins to be so noisy and loud or for mere humans to suddenly discover him hiding there.


After two months, I finally was able to write a small piece about my favorite Kamen Rider series, Den-O, also most noteably the first series I ever watched. Ryuutaros is actually my favorite Imagin and character in the series, so to write about how he hid in Ryoutarou seemed like the perfect fic to write! Like many of my other fics, this is incredibly rough and unedited, so someday I'll come back and rewrite it, but for now, enjoy! Think of this as a late Christmas present!

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><p>It was easy, all too easy. Just like the noisy one in his head had said, the boy was quite easy to find in the city. Bad luck seemed to follow the singular point, he had seen it in action when the rock hit his forehead perfectly in the center. Giggling mentally to himself, he was about to sit back and follow him until he could possess him without being detected when he noticed another sphere of light.<p>

Another imagin.

Interested, the previous one backed away, waiting to see if the other would pick the child or the boy, Ryoutarou. The newcomer seemed to not hesitate as it made a beeline towards the boy, only to narrowly avoid getting hit by a truck. Taking the chance that was given to him, the one first at the scene darted down into Ryoutarou unseen by anyone moments before the other possessed him. It was the perfect cover.

Once inside the singular point, he dove deep past his consciousness into the subconscious. Deep down in what he playfully dubbed 'the void', he could hear and sense nothing, no thoughts, no other imagin presences nearby, nothing but silence. Normally he hated the silence, but for him to avoid being detected, he had to suffer through it. Focusing, the small sphere was surrounded by a 'bubble' of purple energy, providing him with a safe little spot to relax and wait for the time to reveal himself.

His sphere form then warped, turning into sand that contorted and gave shape to his new image. Landing on a nonexistent 'floor' he twirled around in his new body, turning himself this way and that to see what he looked like. Purple? Yes, he liked this color! Running his hands over his face, he could feel fangs drawn back in an open snarl, two horns, a ponytail, and what felt to be two whiskers… Cat? No. He looked down at his clawed feet; they looked more like… He then giggled and beamed, twirling around on one leg in victory.

"_Yay, I'm a dragon!"_

It seemed this Ryoutarou didn't have _too_ bad of an imagination if he was able to come up with an awesome look for him unconsciously. He breathed out, and pouted when he didn't see flames erupting from his mouth. Or maybe he did. The dragon plopped down onto the ground, mumbling to himself as he poked the ground. It wasn't fair, he wanted to breathe fire too! That's what real dragons did right, breathe fire and destroy things? He was pouting, wanting to find something else to distract him from this small trivial fact that dragons should always breathe fire.

A yawn passed through his lips before he knew what had happened. The rage from before vanished, the fact that he was no firebreather forgotten almost instantly. The yawn came again, the imagin feeling sluggish and tired. Well, sometimes possessing humans did tend to wear them out depending on who they were, or in this case, there now being three of them inside one human. Frowning, he looked up past the ceiling of his energy bubble. If he concentrated really hard, he could see glimpses of red and blue energy farther up, almost too difficult to spot, but he knew they were there. The two other imagins who attached themselves to this boy.

He shrugged, not at all bothered by the weaker ones. He knew he could easily overpower them if needed, and the boy's consciousness seemed like it would be easy to suppress, one reason why he didn't feel like trying to defeat him at the moment. The fact he was this 'Den-O' person didn't faze him as well, nor the singular point tidbit. Nothing mattered as long as he could become the conductor of the DenLiner! Maybe the voice would give him a train hat to go along with his new position. Stretching his arms up and to each side, he was at last giving into the sleepiness that began to plague him. Using energy to hide one's self so deeply normally expended a lot of power to keep it up.

"_Mmmm, naptime sounds good! Oyasuminasai~"_

Setting down on his side, the dragon child curled up, flicking his ponytail out of his face as he got comfortable. Perhaps now that he was going to go through with his mission later, that annoying voice would go away. Yes… He yawned and drifted off almost instantly, silence wrapping around him like a cocoon.

It was difficult to breathe when he first woke up, feeling as if everything was caving in on itself. The dragon hissed in annoyance, struggling to sit up and turning this way and that to figure out what was going on. It was like someone decided to drop a mountain on top of the boy or… He frowned as a thought came to him, something he was not liking. It couldn't be another imagin, could it? There was no way the kid could even hold more than three, let alone four of them! It was enough to kill a mere human and besides, he hated sharing things, and it was annoying enough to have to share this body with two others…

Concentrating, he could indeed feel yet another presence, one whose energy was tinged yellow and… furry. Drawing back from it, he blinked and tilted his head. Furry? If he had not been restraining himself from wanting to ascend from the void and see what they looked like, and why this new one was furry – what if he was a cute kitty, or even a fluffy dog? – he would have blown his cover. Immediately the annoyance had vanished, pacified by this new discovery. A fluffy imagin was so much better than what the other two were, from glimpses he had seen before.

Leaning his head on one hand, he took a chance to peek into the boy's consciousness to find out what was going on, hearing names being tossed around. From bits and pieces of what he could remember from being interrupted from his many ongoing naps, the loud red one was Momotaros, the smooth-talking blue one he had used for cover was Urataros, and the newcomer, the strong yellow one seemed to be dubbed Kintaros. Although he could not directly see them, all he knew was that Urataros kept being called a perverted turtle, and the new one was a bear. Bear? His eyes lit up, even if he wasn't a puppy like he had been hoping for, a bear was warm and fluffy!

He found himself tapping his chin in thought. If they all received names, did that mean that he would be able to have one as well? Imagins normally had no names, or at least none they could remember. Memories of their era were rather… difficult to place and none of them really had cared trying to properly remember. He couldn't even recall what he had looked like before. Taros…. Perhaps the last part was due to the boy's name? Ryou_tarou_ into taros… Although the others had their names picked out for him, he wanted to be different. He wanted a better name than the other three, something that represented him… If he was a dragon then…

"_Ryuu. Ryuu… Taros? Ryuutaros!"_

Excited from finding himself the perfect name, without any help from those humans, he rolled onto his back, smirking up at the void. Ryuutaros, yes, he loved the sound of it. It was so much better than the annoying Momotaros! Although the heavy weight was still causing him to feel uncomfortable, he could feel himself relaxing back into unconsciousness, yet another nap to pass the time away.

No matter how many imagins Ryoutarou picked up, he could easily overpower them any day. With a smile, he drifted off to sleep.

Ryuutaros instantly bolted up from his nap, losing whatever it was that caused him to wake up. It was something that smelled delicious; imagins normally couldn't smell in their usual forms unless they became solid so it was easy now for it to catch his attention. He always seemed to wake up smelling it, only for it to be lost and him falling back to sleep unhappy. In the void of Ryoutarou's unconsciousness, there really wasn't much he could do until he revealed himself anyways, and it seemed that due to enjoying the sensations of being in a human, he kept procrastinating on fulfilling his told 'mission'. At least when he slept, he could get away from that nagging voice.

The scent came again and this time Ryuutaros recognized it. It was the coffee that woman in the dining car made all the time. His mouth watered at the scent, longing to try it. Although many imagins forget since they were so obsessed with going to the past, having both a human body and a body of their own gave them something they had been lacking, true senses like their sense of smell and touch. They could properly form facial expressions and smile or frown. And the emotions of the humans, like those when he was happy and warm. What did Ryoutarou call that woman, the one who brought with her the warmth? He wanted to curl up in that warmth, to be the one who it was directed to instead of the boy.

"_Onee-san?"_

Sighing happily as he recalled the warmth, he knew before he defeated the boy, he wanted to take his body out for a spin and have fun. Maybe even dance and pet cute fluffy animals! The coffee smell drifted down again, stronger this time. Sitting on his knees with his legs underneath him, the dragon held up his hands and cupping them as if to imitate holding a mug of coffee. Although his face couldn't show it, he was grinning gleefully, tilting his head to one side as he raised the imaginary cup. He then brought the cup to his lips and pretended to drink it, wishing desperately that it was him sitting in that dining car drinking the coffee and not the three others. It would have been a lovely daydream had he not heard that same voice since he came to the present shatter it.

"Kill Nogami Ryoutarou."

Ryuutaros growled and dropped the imaginary act he had been carrying out. Glove-clad hands clenched together, leather squeaking underneath his grasp. Go away, he kept telling the voice in his head. He would do things on his own time, not the voice's. The imagin didn't need the voice to hound him like he was a kid who didn't know what to do, regardless of the fact that he _was_ a kid. The voice came again, more urgently and almost… annoyed. He scoffed at the voice, slamming his fists against the ground angrily.

"_Go away! I'll defeat him, just wait and see!"_

The voice didn't respond, only infuriating the imagin even more. He stood up, stamping his feet onto the ground and flailing his arms, wanting only to throw something, to hit something, yet in the void, there was nothing around him but stagnant air. Ryuutaros yelled into the void, knowing no one would hear him, and even if his rage carried up into the boy's mind, it could be tossed away as belonging to the red one. Mumbling to himself, he threw himself onto the ground and beat it with his hands. He hated the noisy voice, hated how he always burrowed into the back of his mind, like imagins do when they possess a human. A shiver made its way down his spine.

"_Leave me alone, I can get the job done. Understand?"_

Once more there was silence. Ryuutaros made an annoyed sound, turning onto one side and curling up, arms wrapping around his small form. The silence was more like laughter and he was not one to be laughed at…

"_Baka…"_

Angered voices roused the dragon from his dreamless sleep, words blurred yet aggravating to hear. The imagin frowned as he opened his eyes, staring into the black void around him. It wasn't often when he could hear snippets from what was going topside without actively trying and for once he wished that he could ignore them, his curiosity dampered due to the previous time when he was awake.

"_Neh, they're even noisier than the noisy one…"_

"For now, tonight is my private time. Will you two back off?" As if to offset the next one that attempted to take over the body of the boy, he sent out a light nudge of his power out. He could feel the one with the red glow shove the blue one out, his own power surrounding them before disappearing, dealing no effect. It went without notice as well, something the imagin wasn't happy with. He hated being ignored, he hated it! Of all the times he wanted to remain hidden, it had been fine. But now?

"What do you mean private, you perverted turtle?"

But now…

"Cry!"

In an instant Ryoutarou's body stiffened as the imagins began battling for control inside of him. For now, let them try and find him, it's more fun if he isn't playing a one-sided game. The red eyes of the dragon imagin gleamed darkly, for once the light-hearted and mischievous look all but gone as he pointed at the top of the void.

"_Mind if you all go away?"_

There was no response.

"_Can't hear your answer."_

With snap of his fingers, he sent out a massive surge of his power, purple energy shooting out of the body as an aura to clash around the fighting imagins. Their fighting was causing him to feel like he too was going to collapse, as if the void was caving in on him. And then… They were gone, sent blasting back to that train. It was too bad that he couldn't just destroy the other imagins while he was at it. The void fell peacefully silent, the dragon listening for a few seconds before he settled back down on the floor, falling asleep nearly instantly.

Ting! Tick tick tick. Ting! Tick tick tick…

A strange sound was echoing down from the boy's consciousness, repetitive yet almost relaxing. It was enough to wake up the sleeping dragon, who rubbed his never-blinking eyes. Perplexed, he looked around, yet still saw nothing besides the 'bubble' of his power and the void. Bringing his finger up to tap against his chin, he stared upwards, wondering what was going on. Normally he wouldn't be too curious about such a sound - he was enjoying napping so much - but if he concentrated and reached out towards the sense of hearing, he could hear a voice. What drove him to not ignore it was simple – it was a human talking, not the imagins.

"Turn your mind inside. Inside. Inside."

Frowning, the dragon drew his knees to his chest. Even if his mask held no expression, he was grinning wickedly. He was the master of hide and seek; they couldn't find him that easily. Silly humans with their dull senses and strange tricks. He giggled and rolled over, landing on his stomach. He cupped his cheeks and began to repeatedly kick his lower legs into the air, letting the silence wash over him again.

"_Neh, you can't find me! Silly humans!"_

"It's hiding there I think."

In that instant everything changed for Ryuutaros. It was as if something was descending through the void, the air thickening. He straightened up, on edge. This was not normal! Whatever it was settled around him, like a giant hand trying to corner him, bypassing his energy bubble all too easily. The imagin was shocked; with how deep he was, even the singularity point wouldn't have been able to find him. There was a tug, subtle, yet there, poking and prodding for him. Struggling slightly, he pouted before he tilted his head in thought. He could use this to his advantage… Reaching out and taking a hold of the invisible force, the bubble of power around him collapsed. Using the force, he launched himself upwards out of the void, his solid form phasing into pure energy.

"_Looks like I was found out."_

Ryoutarou's lips twitched up into a barely noticeable smile, eyes flashing purple.

"_Time to play~"_


End file.
